[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13773-S13775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CONFIRMATION OF SUSAN BODINE

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today, I am releasing the hold I placed on 
the nomination of Susan Bodine for Assistant Administrator, Office of 
Solid

[[Page S13774]]

Waste and Emergency Response based on the written commitment I have 
received from EPA to provide information and documents I have requested 
in connection with oversight of the Superfund program. I originally 
requested information on the Superfund program immediately after the 
Ms. Bodine's confirmation hearing in July.
  To date, Ms. Bodine and EPA have provided only a partial response to 
my request. I want to be clear that every question I posed to Ms. 
Bodine and all the information I requested from EPA on this important 
public health program should have been provided to me without 
restriction as part of the Congressional oversight process. I ask 
unanimous consent that the original questions posed to Ms. Bodine be 
printed in the Record. EPA has now committed to provide additional 
information by January 31, 2006. And I ask that EPA's letter in this 
regard be printed in the Record.
  There being no objections, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Questions from Senators Barbara Boxer, Lautenberg and Obama for the EPA 
                           Nomination Hearing

       Questions directed to Susan Bodine who is nominated to be 
     the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Solid Waste and 
     Emergency Response, July 15, 2005.
       (1) Please work with EPA to provide us with a complete list 
     of Superfund sites in order of current health hazards.
       (2) Please indicate how many children live near these sites 
     and how they may be at risk. Please also indicate any 
     daycares, schools, playgrounds or other similar places that 
     are near these sites.
       (3) Please indicate what emergency or other short-term 
     steps EPA may conduct at each site to address the risks at 
     that site, and the cost to take those actions.
       (4) Please provide the cost to cleanup all 103 sites where 
     EPA has determined ``human exposure is not under control.''
       (5) Please work with EPA to ensure that EPA experts, 
     including regional staff, are available and authorized to 
     answer any of our questions relating to Superfund, including 
     human health risks, cleanup costs and funding shortfalls.
       (6) Please ensure that the information provided includes 
     priority list of sites, like that provided to Senator Boxer 
     while chair of the Superfund Subcommittee.
       (7) Please work with EPA to ensure that we receive complete 
     and detailed responses for each question in the Oct. 2004 
     letter that Senator Jeffords and Senator Boxer sent to then-
     Administrator Leavitt on Superfund, with updated responses to 
     the present.
       (8) Please work EPA to provide us with detailed information 
     to date on clean-up work and activities that will not be 
     performed at sites that could use additional funding to 
     initiate new projects or to expedite work at on-going 
     projects on those sites. Please include all regional requests 
     for funding.
       (9) Please work with EPA to provide us with complete 
     information to date on the ongoing remedial projects that 
     could use additional funding and the dollar shortfall for 
     each project. Please provide all regional requests for 
     funding.
       (10) Please work with EPA to provide us with complete 
     information to date on the removal projects that could use 
     additional funding and the dollar shortfall for each project. 
     Please provide all regional requests for funding.
       (11) Please work with EPA to provide us with complete 
     information to date on the pipeline projects that could use 
     additional funding and the dollar shortfall for each project. 
     Please provide all regional requests for funding.
       (12) Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental 
     Response, Compensation and Liability Act required EPA to 
     promulgate regulations--``not later than five years after 
     December 11, 1980'', which required ``classes of facilities 
     [to] establish and maintain evidence of financial 
     responsibility consistent with the degree and duration of 
     risk associated with the production, transportation, 
     treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous substances.'' 
     Please work with EPA to provide me with information that 
     describes all activities that EPA has undertaken to meet this 
     requirement to promulgate these regulations.
                                  ____

                                     U.S. Environmental Protection


                                                       Agency,

                                Washington, DC, December 16, 2005.
     Hon. Barbara Boxer,
     U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Boxer: As a follow up to discussion with your 
     staff, EPA is prepared to provide the following information 
     and documents.
       1. An electronic version of the document (``template'') 
     provided to the Committee in an enclosure to a letter signed 
     by me on October 31, 2005 (available immediately);
       2. An updated version of the list entitled, ``Currently 
     Projected Projects Ready for Construction Funding in FY05,'' 
     previously provided to the Committee in an enclosure to a 
     letter signed by John Reeder on July 19, 2005. The list will 
     include a column displaying ``actual'' FY 2005 funds provided 
     to each site on the list, and a column that provides a code 
     characterizing the nature of human health or ecological risk 
     at each site (available immediately);
       3. In response to the Committee's question on site funding 
     needs, EPA's CERCLIS database provides the most complete 
     existing record. EPA will provide reports from the CERCLIS 
     database (SCAP-4 ``snapshot'') from late summer of 2004 
     reflecting each regional office's planning estimates for 
     funding prior to budget discussions with EPA headquarters. To 
     determine the date of the ``snapshot'' that provides the best 
     information on funding each region will be asked to identify 
     the date that best reflects when the region loaded its 
     assessment of planning data into CERCLIS, prior to changes 
     based on discussions with headquarters. Also, EPA will 
     provide a coversheet that summarizes relevant planning data 
     and FY 2005 obligations, and EPA's operating plan and 
     preliminary allocation memo for FY 2005 (available by January 
     31, 2006).
       4. Additional information from Regional offices on 
     opportunities for accelerated remedial actions at Superfund 
     sites categorized by EPA as ``Human Exposure Not Under 
     Control'' (available by January 31, 2006).
       To collect information under this item, we will ask the 
     regional offices the following: Explain the known 
     opportunities for the use of additional FY 2005 funds to 
     accelerate response actions, including removal actions, 
     remedial actions, and any characterization or testing that 
     could have accelerated remedial action. Include description 
     of costs of these opportunities, if know. If action was not 
     undertaking in FY 2005, explain why not, including funding 
     limitations. Please indicate if the opportunity for 
     accerlated response action still exists, or if conditions at 
     the site present new opportunities for accelerated actions 
     since FY 2005. Include the information in the attached 
     template, and attach copies of supporting documentation.
       Please contact me if I can be of further assistance, or 
     your staff may call me on 564-5200.
           Sincerely,
                                              Stephanie N. Daigle,
                                          Associate Administrator.

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, while a complete response to my request 
remains outstanding, I have determined that with the additional 
commitments I received today, the confirmation of Ms. Bodine can 
proceed with the expectation and assurance from Ms. Bodine to work 
closely with me and provide cooperation on the oversight of this 
program.
  In addition, the Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works 
Committee, Senator Inhofe, has agreed that the Superfund program and 
its critical missions are overdue for a comprehensive oversight hearing 
and that such a hearing shall be held in the Superfund and Waste 
Management Subcommittee of which I am ranking member. Senator Thune, 
the chairman of the subcommittee, has also agreed to this request.
  There have been no comprehensive oversight hearings of this important 
public health program in over 3 years. Ms. Bodine has agreed to testify 
at this hearing after her confirmation, and we will have other outside 
witnesses as well. We have also requested that Administrator Stephen 
Johnson be available as well. I want to thank my colleague, Senator 
Inhofe for agreeing to this critical hearing.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, both subcommittee Chairman Thune and I 
recognize the importance of oversight of the Superfund program. To that 
end, and consistent with Senator Boxer's request, Senator Thune's 
subcommittee will be holding an oversight hearing of EPA's Superfund 
program once Susan Bodine, the President's nominee to head EPA's Office 
of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, is confirmed by the Senate with 
Ms. Bodine testifying on behalf of EPA. After Ms. Bodine is confirmed, 
we will begin to work on scheduling this hearing with a targeted time 
frame of the first quarter of 2006, but no later than the Memorial Day 
recess. Senator Thune will work closely with Senator Boxer in 
scheduling the hearing.
  I expect EPA to be forthcoming in this hearing about the program and 
look forward to Ms. Bodine's confirmation so that she may help ensure 
that the EPA is responsive to the Senator's requests for information 
about the management of the program and the impacts on communities 
throughout the country.
  Mr. THUNE. I am in full agreement with the chairman of the 
Environment & Public Works Committee and I will be working closely with 
him and subcommittee ranking member Boxer on scheduling this hearing 
once Ms. Bodine is confirmed. I am committed to having Ms. Bodine, as 
the EPA witness, appear before the subcommittee

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before Memorial Day recess, 2006. I look forward to working with 
Senator Boxer on scheduling a date and filling out the witness list.

                          ____________________